🌳 Storms Turn Forests Into Light Shows

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/science/scientists-capture-trees-glowing-with-electricity-during-thunderstorms/articleshow/129501399.cms

Scientists Capture Trees Emitting Electric Blue Sparks for the First Time

In a breathtaking scientific discovery, researchers have filmed something that sounds like it belongs in a fantasy film: trees glowing with electricity during thunderstorms.

For the first time in history, scientists captured high-speed footage showing tree branches releasing faint electrical sparks known as corona discharges. The discovery was published in the respected scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters and is giving researchers a whole new way of understanding how forests interact with Earth’s atmosphere.

And the result? Nature may be putting on a hidden light show above our forests.

⚡ Trees That Spark During Storms

When thunderstorms pass overhead, powerful electric fields build between the clouds and the ground. Scientists discovered that this electric charge travels through trees and concentrates at the sharp tips of leaves and needles.

At those points, the air becomes ionized, creating tiny electrical leaks called corona discharges—which release a faint blue or ultraviolet glow. (source: Earth.Com)

These flashes are extremely subtle and normally invisible to the human eye. But using special ultraviolet cameras and sensors placed in forested areas of the Blue Ridge Mountains and along the U.S. East Coast, researchers finally recorded them.

In one observation alone, scientists captured 41 electrical flashes in just 90 minutes on a single tree.

Imagine thousands of leaves across an entire forest quietly releasing sparks as a storm rolls overhead.

Researchers say that if humans could see ultraviolet light, the sight would likely resemble thousands of glowing fireflies dancing across the treetops.

News Reference: Times Of India